George Takei stopped by Good Morning America to discuss his new graphic memoir, It Rhymes With Takei.
The Star Trek actor’s latest book, co-written with Steven Scott and Justin Eisinger and illustrated by Harmony Becker, was published Tuesday by Top Shelf Productions. It tells the story of Takei’s childhood, which included being incarcerated in camps for Japanese Americans during World War II; his career as an actor; and his decision to come out as gay at the age of 68. A critic for Kirkus praised the memoir as “a heartwarming journey that, yes, goes boldly where few men have gone before.”
On the morning show, Takei said, “I’d been closeted most of my life. I’ve been behind barbed wires—very real ones—as a child. And then I discovered I’m different, more than my visible difference. I felt inside…as a boy, I was attracted to other boys, and other boys didn’t feel that way. I passionately wanted to be an actor, so I decided to create my own invisible barbed-wire fence, within which I lived for most of my adult life.”
Asked whether it was difficult living in the closet during most of his career, Takei said, “No one would cast me if it was known that I was gay. The object lesson for me was when I was a teenager, my heartthrob was Tab Hunter….Went to see every one of his films, Battle Cry, Damn Yankees. One of the scandal sheets exposed him as gay, and he just disappeared. He had a contract with Warner Brothers, but they just ran it out.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
